Chapter 7 Practice Quiz — The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 7
Why has Gatsby stopped throwing his parties at the start of Chapter 7?
Daisy has been visiting him regularly in the afternoons, so the parties are no longer needed to attract her attention. He also replaced his servants with Wolfshiem's associates to prevent gossip about her visits.
What does Daisy do when Tom leaves the room during lunch at the Buchanans' house?
She goes to Gatsby, pulls his face down, and kisses him on the mouth, telling him "You know I love you."
What moment at lunch makes Tom realize Daisy loves Gatsby?
When Daisy tells Gatsby "You always look so cool" with undisguised adoration, Tom sees the look between them and is astounded, suddenly recognizing the truth of their affair.
How are the cars arranged for the drive to New York City?
Tom insists on driving Gatsby's yellow car with Nick and Jordan, while Gatsby and Daisy drive Tom's blue coupé. This car swap proves fateful, as the yellow car later kills Myrtle.
What does Tom learn when he stops at Wilson's garage for gas?
He learns that George Wilson has discovered his wife Myrtle's infidelity (though Wilson doesn't know the man is Tom) and plans to move her away. Tom realizes he is losing both his wife and his mistress simultaneously.
What does Gatsby demand Daisy tell Tom at the Plaza Hotel?
Gatsby demands that Daisy tell Tom she never loved him and that their marriage was a mistake. Daisy initially complies but then breaks down, admitting "I did love him once—but I loved you too."
What criminal activities does Tom expose about Gatsby at the Plaza?
Tom reveals that Gatsby and Wolfshiem bought side-street drugstores and sold grain alcohol (bootlegging). He also hints at larger, more dangerous schemes that Gatsby's associate Walter Chase is afraid to discuss.
How does the confrontation at the Plaza end?
Tom sends Daisy home in Gatsby's car, dismissing the affair as a "presumptuous little flirtation." Daisy and Gatsby leave without a word, and Nick realizes it is his thirtieth birthday.
How does Myrtle Wilson die?
She runs into the road in front of Gatsby's yellow car, which Daisy is driving. She is struck and killed instantly. Myrtle had run out because she recognized the yellow car from earlier and thought Tom was driving.
What is Gatsby doing at the end of the chapter?
He is standing outside the Buchanans' house in the moonlight, keeping vigil to make sure Tom doesn't hurt Daisy. Nick sees through the pantry window that Daisy and Tom are sitting together in quiet reconciliation, but Gatsby doesn't know this.
How does Tom Buchanan use class to defeat Gatsby?
Tom leverages his old-money status and social connections to investigate Gatsby's past. He exposes Gatsby's criminal background and mocks his "new money" pretensions, knowing Daisy will retreat to the safety of established wealth and social legitimacy.
What does Daisy's reaction during the Plaza confrontation reveal about her character?
Her inability to tell Tom she never loved him reveals her fundamental weakness and attachment to security. She retreats from Gatsby's absolute demands, showing she will always choose comfort and social standing over romantic idealism.
How does Nick Carraway change during Chapter 7?
Nick reaches deep disillusionment. He turns thirty, feeling the "portentous menacing road of a new decade." He refuses to enter the Buchanan house, recognizes the moral bankruptcy around him, and walks away from Gatsby's futile vigil.
What parallel does Nick draw between Tom Buchanan and George Wilson?
Nick observes that both men have just discovered their wives' infidelity, noting "there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well." Wilson is physically ill from the shock while Tom channels his into aggressive action.
Why does Myrtle mistake Jordan Baker for Daisy?
Myrtle watches from the upstairs window as Tom stops at Wilson's garage driving Gatsby's yellow car. She sees Jordan in the front seat and assumes she is Tom's wife, filling Myrtle with jealous terror. This misidentification fuels her desperate dash into the road later.
How does Chapter 7 portray the impossibility of repeating the past?
Gatsby's demand that Daisy declare she never loved Tom asks her to erase five years of lived experience. When she cannot do it, his dream of recapturing the past collapses entirely—the past cannot be rewritten to match his idealized version.
What does Chapter 7 reveal about the carelessness of the wealthy?
Daisy kills Myrtle and doesn't stop. Gatsby covers for her. Tom directs Wilson's suspicion toward Gatsby. Neither Tom nor Daisy faces consequences, embodying Nick's later observation that they "smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money."
How does the theme of identity and self-invention unravel in this chapter?
Tom systematically dismantles Gatsby's constructed persona by exposing his criminal connections and dubious past. Gatsby's carefully maintained facade—the Oxford story, the respectability, the "old sport" mannerism—all crumble under Tom's attack, revealing the fragility of reinvented identity.
What role does pathetic fallacy play in Chapter 7?
The extreme heat mirrors the characters' boiling emotions and mounting tensions. As the temperature rises, so do tempers—culminating in the explosive Plaza confrontation. The heat breaks as the characters drive home into "cooling twilight," but the emotional destruction has already occurred.
What is the dramatic irony in the chapter's final scene?
Gatsby stands vigil outside the Buchanans' house, believing he is protecting Daisy from Tom. But Nick sees through the window that Tom and Daisy are sitting together intimately, reconciling. Gatsby is "watching over nothing"—his devotion is directed at someone who has already moved on.
What does the switching of cars symbolize in Chapter 7?
The car swap represents the entanglement and confusion of identities. Tom in the yellow car establishes that he is not the driver who killed Myrtle. Daisy driving the yellow car—Gatsby's car—links Gatsby to the death. The exchange sets in motion the chain of blame that will lead to Gatsby's murder.
What does Gatsby mean when he says Daisy's "voice is full of money"?
Gatsby identifies the quality that makes Daisy's voice so captivating: it carries the sound of wealth, privilege, and security. Nick recognizes this as the "inexhaustible charm" of her voice—she embodies the promise of the upper class that Gatsby has pursued his entire life.
What does the word "dilatory" mean as used in this chapter?
Slow or intended to cause delay. The new butler adds "sir" in a "dilatory, grudging way," meaning he pauses reluctantly before using the respectful term.
What does "portentous" mean in the phrase "portentous menacing road of a new decade"?
Ominously significant or serving as a warning of something momentous. Nick uses it to describe turning thirty as a foreboding threshold.
Which line from Chapter 7 captures the moment Gatsby's dream dies?
"Only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room." This describes Gatsby's futile persistence after Daisy has already retreated.